Generally, for applications involving a 2-quadrant drive, zero voltage switching (ZVS) is achieved by the use of an Active Resonant Commutated Pole Converter (ARCP) as proposed by De Doncker and Lyons (The Auxiliary Resonant Commutated Pole Converter, De Doncker, R. W.; Lyons, J. P.; Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, 1990, Conference Record of the 1990 IEEE, 7-12 Oct. 1990, vol. 2, pages 1228-1235), or any of its variants. A basic conceptual implementation of the ARCP converter is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 depicts an equivalent circuit for the ARCP of FIG. 1. Auxiliary switches SX1 and SX2 provide a resonant charge and discharge of the two main switches S1, S2 through Lx in order to achieve the desired ZVS characteristic. This is necessary in order to overcome any freewheeling current that is normally directed to the anti-parallel body diodes D1, D2 associated with the main switch MOSFETS.
Such a circuit is not only advantageous from an efficiency standpoint, but also from a noise perspective. The ARCP circuit practically eliminates the reverse recovery issue that is associated with the main switch body diodes D1, D2. The following analysis of a hard switched converter, starts from a time when the load current is positive, or in the direction shown in the arrow in FIG. 1, and with the high side switch S1 in the on-state. Once the high switch S1 turns off, assuming the current is high enough, the MOSFET output capacitances discharges to zero and the anti-parallel body diode D2 of the low side switch S2 resumes full load conduction during the subsequent dead-time. Depending on the load, the lower MOSFET S2 may turn on under a ZVS condition. After the dead-time ends, the lower MOSFET turns on and shunts the load current flowing through its body diode. Eventually the lower MOSFET S2 turns off and the load current resumes back into its body diode D2 once again. So far there is no issue of course until this particular dead-time interval ends and the upper MOSFET S1 turns on. Here the upper MOSFET turns on hard and forces the body diode D2 of the lower MOSFET S1 to turn off sharply. Depending on the size of the load, and the type of MOSFET used, there may be a significant body diode recovery loss. Also, if the MOSFETS are large, the output capacitances will be significant and there will be high peak charging currents as well. Apart from risk of damage of the lower MOSFET's body diode, the resulting current spike and extra heat dissipation could prove fatal in a low noise, high efficiency requirement.
To sum up, if the inductor current is positive (buck or “motoring phase”), the bottom MOSFET body diode D2 freewheels during the dead-time and exhibits recovery loss once the top MOSFET S1 turns on. Conversely if the current is away from the load, or negative (boost or “regenerative phase”), the top MOSFET body diode D1 freewheels with recovery loss upon turn on of the bottom MOSFET S2. The purpose of the auxiliary circuit is to softly redirect this freewheeling or load current away from the body diodes and towards the auxiliary switches during the dead-times to such an extent that the voltage seen across these main switches is zero right before turn on. This relieves the current flowing through either MOSFET body diode D1, D2 as well as to sufficiently charge or discharge the respective MOSFET output capacitances C1, C2 (FIG. 2) prior to turn on. A split voltage in the conventional ARCP is necessary to sufficiently reset the snubber inductor Lx during the main switch conduction interval. It is important to ensure reset of this snubber inductor to minimize the losses incurred in the auxiliary FETS Sx1, Sx2 which is a requirement for these devices to achieve ZCS (zero current switching). Ideally, snubber losses are mainly incurred during the commutation interval. This technique, as evident in FIG. 1, consists of two series capacitors, a resonant inductor as well as a 4-quadrant switch. Here, complexity is an issue when taking into account the required control and drive circuitry as well.
A popular variation of the ARCP, called the “coupled inductor approach,” was presented by Jae-Young Chi et al. (A Novel ZVT Three-phase Inverter with Coupled Inductors, Jae-Young Choi; Boroyevich, D.; Lee, F. C., Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 1999. PESC 99. 30th Annual IEEE, Volume 2, Jun. 27-Jul. 1, 1999, pages 975-980). FIG. 4 depicts an equivalent circuit for the coupled-inductor approach. Though the snubber choke is more complicated, overall complexity is somewhat reduced relative to the conventional ARCP scheme. This approach uses a simpler and more conventional auxiliary FET drive scheme. The four-quadrant switch and split capacitors of the ARCP illustrated in FIG. 1 are replaced with a two-quadrant switch Sx1, Sx2, a slightly more complicated choke Ls, T1 and a pair of diodes Dx1, Dx2. Thus the drive complexity for this topology is significantly reduced. Resonant inductor reset is provided with the help of the coupled winding of T1 through diodes Dx1 and Dx2. The drawback here is that for a turns ratio of 1:1, the effective source voltage for the resonant circuit is one-half of Vdc. Thus it is required here to boost the resonant choke current to a level equal to the load current prior to turn off of the main switch S1 or S2. It also generally requires variable timing control in order to minimize the losses at light load. To remedy this, Wei et al. (A Simplified Control Scheme for Zero Voltage Transition (ZVT) Inverter Using Coupled Inductors, Wei Dong; Dengming Peng; Huijie Yu; Lee, F. C.; Lai, J.; Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2000 PESC 00 2000, IEEE 31st Annual Volume 3, 18-23 Jun. 2000, pages 1221-1226) proposed a technique that uses fixed timing control however with a non-unity turns ratio. Here, Sx1 and Sx2 are respectively commutated during alternate dead times. When Sx1 is activated in the motoring or buck phase, the snubber choke current, ILs, is charged to the extent that the lower body diode D2 current, or load current is supplied through the Sx1-Ls-T1-D2 path. This eventually turns lower body diode D2 off and subsequently charges capacitances C1 and C2 resonantly to the point where upper body diode D1 conducts. Main switch S1 is then commanded to turn on under a zero voltage condition. A short period of time later, upper auxiliary switch Sx1 turns off and the coupled inductor Ls freewheels through diode Dx1 against a reset voltage provided by the coupled winding.
If still in the buck phase, during the next dead-time interval, the bottom auxiliary switch Sx2 turns on and snubber choke Ls resonantly discharges capacitances C1 and C2 to the extent that node B clamps to zero via lower body diode D2 before main switch S2 is commanded on. It is important to note here that the load current has the tendency to freewheel into the bottom MOSFET body diode and thus helps in discharging node “B” as well. This is one reason for the asymmetry associated with the resonant inductor current waveform. In essence, Sx2 provides help to the load in order to achieve ZVS of the bottom switch in “buck” mode. Thus, the auxiliary switch SX2 does more work at no load rather than full load. It is important to note that the discharge path here is C1/C2-T1-Ls-Sx2.
The “regenerative” mode is an entirely different case. Here the load current is negative and flows into the switches as shown by the arrow in FIG. 4. The supply in this mode behaves as a boost converter where the lower main switch S2 acts as a switch and the upper main switch S1 a boost diode. In a programmable supply, the load current may be negative during quick output voltage down-programming due to the discharge of the output capacitance. However this is considered a transient condition and ZVS may not be necessary in this mode. This would preclude the use of auxiliary switch SX2 altogether. However, in DC motor applications that require regenerative braking, the motor behaves as an electric generator. In this case kinetic energy is converted into electrical energy and transferred back into the supply bus through the converter circuit. Thus the current through the output inductor is clearly negative or towards the main switches in the steady-state. It is interesting to note that in this case the load current isn't helping the auxiliary switch Sx2 to achieve ZVS of the bottom switch as was true in the former case. Auxiliary switch Sx2 must do significantly more work in this mode. Therefore the timing control logic for regenerative mode must take this into account.
FIG. 5 illustrates a single inductor approach with is an even simpler approach proposed in motor drive applications by Ching wt al. (Novel Two-Quadrant Zero-current-transition Converter for DC Motor Drives, Ching, T. W.; Chau, K. T.; Chan, C. C., Industrial Electronics Society, 1998. IECON '98, Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the IEEE Volume 2, August 31 Sep. 4, 1998, pages 715-720, Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/IECON.1998.724181). This single inductor approach utilizes a single inductor Lsn and two auxiliary switches aux_h, aux_1. This approach overcomes the complex choke used in the coupled inductor approach. The auxiliary switches aux_h, aux_1 work in the same fashion as before however reset of the resonant inductor Lsn is achieved through the body diodes Dx1, Dx2 of the auxiliary MOSFETS aux_h, aux_1. The only disadvantage for this approach is the detrimental effect associated with the auxiliary MOSFET output capacitances (not shown). Here, simulations show that this capacitance can cause significant residual current in the auxiliary MOSFET body diodes Dx1, Dx2 due to insufficient reset of the resonant choke. The PSIM® (a simulation and design tool available from Powersim, Inc. of Woburn, Mass.) simulation shown in FIG. 6 is for the circuit shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 6 illustrates this residual current effect with an auxiliary MOSFET capacitance of only 400 pF each. Depending on the application, this may not be an issue however the ZCS nature of the auxiliary circuit is lost resulting in higher noise and loss.
The waveforms in the figure show perfect ZVS (Vca). However it also shows the ill effect of insufficient reset in the auxiliary choke IL(snub). This current flows through the auxiliary FET body diodes and in this particular case is as high as 5 A. The conditions of the simulation illustrated in FIG. 6 are as follows: Vout=250V; Iload=5 A, Vdc=340V, C1 and C2=4000 pF; Ls=6 uH, d=74%, and aux MOSFET output capacitances of 800 pF each. The top plot in FIG. 6 shows the snubber choke current ILsnub. Here we see a residual current of roughly 5 Amps into each auxiliary switch due to insufficient reset. This current can flow throughout the entire conduction time of the main switches S1, S2 since there is no longer a voltage drop across the snubber choke to allow any additional reset. The middle plot shows the source voltage of the main switch S1 (with ZVS) and the bottom plot shows the control signals for all four MOSFETS. Vhigh and Vlow are the main switch S1, S2 logic signals and Vsnhigh and Vsnlow are the auxiliary switch aux_h, aux_1 control signals.